Windows 10: Pinned folders drop off quick access

I use quick access in file explorer a lot. I pin folders that I use frequently. On an irregular but frequent basis the pins reset to to default downloads, documents, music, etc. This started when I used Windows 10. I have since upgraded to Windows 11 mainly to try to solve this. Still the same behavior. I have run SFC and it finds no issues. I have watched but can never quite pin down a cause e.g. system reboot, system update, or anything else or a correlation with another type of event.To be clear, my folders do NOT disappear, they are just no longer listed in my quick access pinned fol

:)

 

Quick Access bar

Hi,

Thank you for posting your query in Microsoft Community.

We would be glad to help you with the issue you are facing today. I understand the difficulty.

Remove items from Quick access.

I would suggest you to follow the below steps.

• Right click on the file or folder.
• Select the option “unpin from the quick access”

To pin items to an item already on the quick access bar.

Follow the below steps.

I would suggest you to create folder in the desktop screen & place all the files or folder which need to pin to the quick access.

• Open the quick access.
• Select the Desktop option.
• Right click on the folder & select the option “pin to quick access”

Hope this helps in resolving the issue. If the issue persists, do get back to us. We will be happy to assist you.



Thank you.

 

Cannot Pin Folders in Quick Access

I am not sure what is wrong, but my Quick Access in File Explorer in Windows 10 is locked. I cannot pin anything to it. There are no folders in it. If I try and drop a folder onto it (to pin it), I get the Do Not Enter (aka Red Circle with a line) as the
mouse cursor.

I've tried various options:

1) Reset all options in Windows Explorer Options but nothing seems to give me access...

2) Deleted the %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Recent\... files as suggested by others

3) Create a new Administrator account on the same machine and it also suffers from the same problems. For me, this means that the problem is either in the User Template but not in HKCU...

Where are the Quick Access pinned folders stored in the Registry ?

I looked in the Group Policy but don't see anything that prevents it...

 

Quick access - files and folders dropping from Quick access

Thanks. I'll start going through this list. One thing I note is that a number of these seem to be about recovering missing files and folders. None of my files or folders are actually missing, they just no longer are listed in Quick Access, even after pinning them there.